The riveting story of a true-life female Indiana Jones: an archaeologist who survived the Nazis and then saved Egypt’s ancient temples.

In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: fifty countries had contributed nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High Dam. It was a project of unimaginable size and complexity that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by stone, and rebuilt on higher ground. But the massive press coverage of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the gutsy French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would now be at the bottom of a gigantic reservoir.

Desroches-Noblecourt refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. As a brave member of the French Resistance in World War II, she had survived imprisonment by the Nazis. Now, in her fight to save the temples, she had to face down two of the most daunting leaders of the postwar world: Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and French president Charles de Gaulle.

After a century and a half of Western plunder of Egypt’s ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt helped preserve a crucial part of its cultural heritage, and, just as importantly, made sure it remained in its homeland.

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‘The subject of Lynne Olson’s excellent biography, Empress of the Nile, isn’t, as you might think, Cleopatra, but rather the “daredevil archaeologist” Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, best known for helping save massive ancient temples from destruction. Olson, whose many previous books spotlight unsung heroes and heroines of that war, is here at her best … Empress of the Nile tells her story well, embedding it in the history of modern Egyptian archaeology. Empress of the Nile is a welcome and needed work of both rescue and reclamation.’

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‘A vivid reminder of a remarkable individual and an intriguing recreation of the strange times in which she lived.’

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‘Olson tells this forgotten story with pitch and pace, so that it becomes a real nail-biter.’  

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‘The life of an archaeologist who deserves to be better known … The author provides a fine account of Desroches-Noblecourt’s long, distinguished career. An expert biography of the most prestigious Egyptologist of her time.’

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‘Fast-paced, highly entertaining ... Olson’s narrative gathers steam in the tense days before the Nazis invaded Poland ... The highlight of Olson’s book is her thrilling account of the rescue of the giant statues of Rameses II and the Abu Simbel temples from inundation by the Aswan High Dam ... Meticulous detail.’

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‘Follows Desroches-Noblecourt every step along the way. And I mean every step. Deeply researched, it contains in its many detours and side trips a certain amount of historical TMI.’

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‘Egyptologists are certainly familiar with her legacy, but since not all of her many books are translated into English, author Lynne Olson has written an engrossing biography that makes Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt's life and work accessible to a broader audience … [Empress of the Nile] at times reads like a suspenseful political thriller.’

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Not enough people will have heard of the subject of this fascinating book - the French archaeologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt who became one of the world's foremost experts on ancient Egypt. In Empress of the Nile, Lynne Olson details how Desroches - small in stature and a woman to boot - was willing to take on any number of powerful men in her field.’

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‘Empress of the Nile is an absorbing portrait of an amazing woman.’

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‘Assured … The book follows a welcome trend to recover pioneering women in the social sciences.’

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‘Empress Of The Nile is the very readable story of Christiane’s overlooked role and her incredible life, which also saw her imprisoned by the Nazis and bravely standing up to world leaders, including de Gaulle. Fascinating!’

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‘Olson has carried out painstaking research into this woman, who overcame strong misogyny from male archaeologists at the start of her stellar career, but who was never afraif to stand up for what she believed. The result is a riveting account of her years spent in Egypt and her role in the world’s greatest international cultural cooperation.’